This invention relates to apparatus designed to facilitate the rapid connection and disconnection of a pair of threaded members. More particularly, this invention relates to apparatus for selectively making quick connection and disconnection of collet and collet tube parts of a work spindle at an industrial machine station.
Although rapid strides have been made in the machining industry over the past decade, coupling systems utilized for affixing collet tubes to collets have essentially remained unchanged, notwithstanding the fact that multiple spindle machining apparatus has become commonplace. The result has been that changeover times required to change collet tubes on respective collet members have become inordinate, sometimes involving as much as eight hours, or a complete shift, to make a changeoever.
Existing quick disconnect systems of the prior art, on the other hand, do not lend themselves appropriately to collet and collet tube systems. More particularly, the operating environment of collet and collet tube assemblies requires that care be taken to insure that mating threads between collet tube and collet members are not stripped by virtue of overtorquing. In addition, initial alignment of a quick disconnect collet tube with respect to a supporting collet would be cumbersome and difficult to achieve without special provisions tailored to the specific environment.